Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them
by jlthesuperhuman
Summary: The aftermath of the school shooting and the death of Jimmy and Keith forces everyone in Tree Hill to examine their lives. Nathan reassesses his relationship with Haley, while Brooke and Rachel join forces to heal the student body. Dan must deal with the ramifications of shooting Keith, while Lucas and Peyton consider the implications of their kiss in the library.


Jimmy Edwards is seen lighting a cigarette and watching the normal day-to-day high-school life of Tree Hill High. He remembers what he said on the time capsule and says to himself, "Here we go," before walking into the school. As he approaches his locker spot, he finds the guys who beat him up going through his locker and trashing his belongings. As they push past him, he turns around and draws a gun from the pocket of his jeans, just as Peyton, Emma and Brooke are walking around the corner and looking through the glass doors. Brooke drags Peyton to the floor, and at the same time, upon seeing the looks of shock on the girls' faces, the boys turn around to see Jimmy aiming the gun at them. He shoots as the glass shatters and suddenly realizes what he did, running off as Brooke struggles up through the panicked crowds. Principal Turner gets the school evacuated and calls 911, while an unaware Mouth sits in the A/V room editing with headphones on. Haley and Skills go into the Tutor Center, a designated lockdown area, with a bunch of other students as Brooke runs around looking for Peyton in the crowds. As she runs outside looking for her best friend, Whitey and the Ravens are getting off the bus, and Brooke rushes to tell Lucas there was a shooting. Jacob runs in to try to find Haley, Peyton and Emma as Brooke tells them she lost Peyton in the commotion. Lucas and Nathan follow after Jacob and tackles him to the floor, but fails to stop him, and is followed inside by the Scott brothers. As they run in, Whitey drags Brooke onto the bus. In the Tutor Center, Haley tells the other students everyone will be safe. The students in the room include Skills, Emma, Rachel—and Jimmy. Meanwhile, Lucas and Nathan drag Jacob into Whitey's office and tells him he needs a plan. Jacob picks up a baseball bat to use as a weapon, but Lucas tells him they should wait for the police, but Jacob argues that Haley along with his girlfriend and Peyton is inside, and may be in trouble. Back in the Tutor Center, the students consider a way out, but they know the gunman is a student and therefore knows where they'll be hiding. As the students call him psycho, Jimmy asks why they call him psycho. Jacob, Lucas and Nathan get to the scene of the shooting and go separate routes, with Nathan and Lucas searching for Peyton and Jacob looking for Haley and Emma. Nathan and Lucas finds a trail of blood on the floor and follows where it is leading, creeping around the library and hearing a sudden noise. As they round the corner, Peyton screams in pain, explaining that she'd been cut by glass and can't move. She begs them not to leave her and he promises they won't. Meanwhile, after discovering Mouth and throwing him against a wall, (since he didn't know anyone else was in the school besides him, Jacob and Lucas), Jacob informs him to leave, but Mouth decides to stick with Jacob as he has the baseball bat after learning that someone has a gun in the high school. Back in the Tutor Center, Haley hears the doorknob twist, and the students fall silent as they see Jacob's driving license slide under the door. Haley goes to open it, but another student—Marcus—is more hesitant, and this causes a disagreement as to whether to open the door. Haley has an idea, and she whispers, "Family is..." through the door, and gets a reply of, "forever." This lets Haley confirm that Jacob is outside, so Skills helps her open the door. As Jacob enters and tells them to go, they all suddenly hear a warning of, "Don't." They turn around to find Jimmy holding a gun, and he tells them to stay. Jimmy gets them to line up against the wall and orders Emma to tape a line that no one can cross onto the floor. Abby Brown, another student, asks why he's doing this, and Jimmy challenges her to say his full name. Abby doesn't know, but Haley does and brings up the fact that Jimmy is a good person. However, Jimmy refuses to listen and orders her and everyone else to shut up and sit down—but not before noticing that Haley has been on the phone to the emergency dispatcher. He gets on the phone and warns them that if anyone goes near the school, he will shoot students. He demands all their cell phones and weapons, and they give them to him, but as he asks for Jacob phone, Jacob begs, Jimmy to let Emma and the others go so they could talk, but Jimmy refuses. Outside the school, Dan and Principal Turner are trying to figure out how this could have happened as a bunch of parents stand outside, terrified for their children's lives. Inside the gym where the parents are all meeting up with students, Brooke tries to get out but can't without a parent. She attempts to call Lucas in desperation for an answer as Jimmy's mom, Mary Edwards, walks past and is suddenly approached by a policeman. She is asked to accompany him, assuming the worst. Back in the library, Peyton needs to apply pressure to her wound as she tells Lucas and Nathan it was Jimmy but he didn't look angry, just scared and to tell, Jacob she's sorry for losing Emma. In the Tutor Center, Jimmy has the students sitting at the desks as he begins to yell at them for leaving him out, especially Mouth. Rachel then interrupts telling him not to make Mouth feel guilty for simply living his life; it is Jimmy's fault. Jimmy counters with the fact that he just wanted to be left alone. When Marcus dares Jimmy with the fact that there is strength in numbers, that Jimmy couldn't shoot all of them if they attacked him, Jimmy calls his bluff with the belief that there are others outside, with guns, and asks them if they ever treated anyone badly, as that is who will be out there. As they think about this, a phone suddenly rings; it is a ringtone for Marcus's mom. Jimmy answers the phone and insults the person on the other line, as well as Marcus. Marcus gets up as Jimmy raises the gun to his face. Marcus tells Jimmy he won't do it, but the other students aren't too convinced. Skills gets up and shouts for Marcus, and as Marcus turns around, Skills knocks him out, to keep him out of danger. Outside, the police inform Dan that they can't go in as they don't know how many pupils are in there with guns, and a moment later, Keith joins Dan and tells him Jimmy is not a bad kid. He goes up to Karen who is devastated, as she couldn't tell the police what Lucas was wearing, and then sobs that she didn't have a chance to say goodbye to Lucas before realizing, Jacob had also ran into the school too. In the gym, a news reporter is watching the time capsule video and plans on getting the story, but Brooke comes up and closes the laptop. She addresses herself as the student-council president and tells her to switch it off. The newsreader gets the camera and asks her about the tragedy, and Brooke replies to the news reporter she should be ashamed of herself. In the Tutor Center, Jacob asks Jimmy what he wants, and Rachel says he could give up, because he never hurt anyone, but Jimmy admits he doesn't know if that's true. As the rest of the students make it seem as though he may get away with it, Marcus laughs in their faces saying he won't lie for Jimmy and comes to defend Jacob and Emma. Abby then begins to break down in tears and says they are only kids and they shouldn't be doing stuff like this. Rachel says that high school is a short time in life—700 days. Couldn't Jimmy see past it? Jimmy counters with the fact that he can never get those days back—the days he'd felt useless, the days he'd been bullied, and the days he'd felt invisible. Jimmy admits that it's not because he didn't get into college, and it's not because he isn't popular; it's just because he is sick of it all. Back in the library, Peyton is tired and Nathan and Lucas tell her to talk to them about a good day and she tells him of a day she and Brooke spent in a snow fort. But then, her mind drifts back to today, and she tells Lucas that no matter how many people analyze the shooting, they will never understand it and their lives will never be the same, if they do survive. She then finds out from Lucas and Nathan that she was shot in her leg and that they have to leave, so Peyton can get medical attention. Peyton tells Lucas that she love him and kisses him, in case she doesn't make it out. In the gym, as Brooke and the news reporter watch a family embraced in a group hug, the news reporter informs Brooke that Americans only tune into tragedy. Then she asks Brooke how much time she has spent with Jimmy Edwards, and as Brooke doesn't answer, she says maybe Brooke isn't the only one who should be ashamed. As she leaves, a mom approaches her looking for her daughter Glenda Farrell. As Brooke says she doesn't know who she is, her mom says that Glenda says that she and Brooke were friends. Realizing it was a lie, Brooke says she will go find her. Walking outside, she breaks down in tears of guilt and worry with what is happening at the high school. In the Tutor Center, Jimmy tells them of a day no one talked to him and how good it was. The fact that he was invisible for that day made him feel depressed, so he went home and overdosed on anti-depressants. When he returned, no one had noticed he was gone. Mouth, now in tears, tells them that he just needs to get past high school and then, as adults, they can take it back. Back in the gym, Brooke asks if someone is Glenda and finds her. She tells her that her mom is waiting, but Glenda knows and wants her to be afraid of losing her as she takes her for granted. As she is about to go back, Brooke apologizes for not knowing her, but she says it's OK, as she knows Brooke. As Glenda walks off, Brooke gives Karen a call, and Karen goes to get her from the gym. As she leaves, Keith promises to not let anything happen to "their" boy. Back in the Tutor Center, Jimmy and Nathan argue over what Jimmy is doing, with Nathan protesting that everything Jimmy is doing today is wrong, while Haley notices Abby looking ill. Haley finds Abby's diabetic bracelet, but Abby's medication is across the way. The students persuade Jimmy to let Abby go and he agrees, but Abby is scared of "the others". Jimmy simply tells her to go, and Abby walks out of the room and breaks into a run out of the school. Karen gets a devastated Brooke, while Lucas clears the way for Peyton to get out. Meanwhile, as Jimmy smiles as Abby runs away, he turns around and suddenly sees Nathan on his phone. He gets the phone off him, furious at Nathan's lies. Outside, Dan gets a text telling him that Jimmy is the only student with a gun, and that Nathan is being held hostage in the Tutor Center. Dan tells Keith, who asks to go inside as he can prevent Jimmy from hurting anyone. Inside the Tutor Center, Jimmy promises whoever steps into the hallway is going to die, just as the door slams behind Lucas and Peyton as they walk down the corridor. As Jimmy prepares to go out to shoot the person in the corridor, the students persuade him to not to, to no avail. As Nathan, Lucas and Peyton go through the corridors, Jimmy confronts them and Lucas tells him that Peyton has been shot, and Jimmy says he didn't mean to hurt them. A minute later, Jacob sneaks out of the Tutor Center and comes round the corner and asks him to let them go. He stands in front of them and tells Lucas he's going to be alright and urges him to go. Keith later shows up and asks for Jacob to go, but he refuses because he wants to save Jimmy. Jacob reminds Jimmy of a time they played a game of football at the river court and they both had a good laugh, and it would get better. He tells him that the pain goes away and the voice saying there is no way out is wrong. Jimmy counters that it won't get better after what he's done, and he can't take it back. Nathan, Lucas and Peyton get outside as Jimmy continues to argue his case to an understanding Jacob and Keith. He tells them that he just wanted them to like him, and the pain he has inside hurts so much. He then falls to his knees and apologizes to both Jacob and Keith, before turning the gun on himself and pulling the trigger. Jacob screams in protest, but it is too late. The students in the Tutor Center hear the gunshot as Haley and Mouth break down in tears, while the others sit shocked. While Jacob hovers over Jimmy's lifeless body, Peyton is lifted onto an ambulance as Lucas gets out and hugs his mom and Brooke. In the corridor, Jacob continues to mourn over Jimmy and realizes that he is dead. As he continues to look for a pulse, Dan suddenly approaches him. He picks up the gun that Jimmy used as Keith looks up, upset at the sight in front of him. Dan then raises the gun at Keith, as Jacob stands up, realizing what is happening and moves in front of Keith. Without saying a word, Dan pulls the trigger and accidentally shoots Jacob, severely wounding. As Emma rounds the corner, Dan shoots her after what she had witnessed, killing her in the process. After realizing what he'd done, Dan runs off, and drops the gun. Just as Keith looks tries to find a pulse in Emma, to no avail. After Haley finds Jacob lying on the floor bleeding, she carries him to outside and requests someone called another ambulance. Once, Jacob was placed in the ambulance the students mourn over the death of Emma.


End file.
